If you’re looking to create colourful cottage garden displays for many months of the year as well as habitat for interesting insect pollinators, look no further than our native Scaevola or fan-flowers.
This versatile group of groundcovers and shrubs gets its common name from the one-sided, fanlike arrangement of the petals. (The generic name Scaevola comes from the Latin for “left-handed”.)
Perhaps best known for their rich purple flowers, with various shades of pink as well as white also available, fan-flowers belong to the family Goodeniaceae.
There are around 130 species, 80 of which are endemic to Australia. Half that number again has spread across the Pacific islands where they are commonly found in coastal areas, so they’re often very tough and resistant to both wind and salt.
Let’s look at a few of…
You're reading a preview of
Good Organic Gardening (Digital) - 1 Issue, 15.2